The Guardian's Helen Pidd and David Conn have been documenting the reaction to Lady Thatcher's death in the communities that saw some of the fiercest confrontations during the miners' strike.

Among them was Pete Mansell, raising a pint in the Black Bull pub in Aughton, Rotherham, to the former prime minister's demise. The former miner comments: "I spoke ill of her when she was alive and I'll speak ill of her now she's dead. She doesn't mean two iotas to me."

Also worth a look are these 20 personal insights into "the Margaret Thatcher that I knew" by leading figures of her era including Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Norman Tebbit, Carol Thatcher and Geoffrey Howe.

Young, who completed the article just days before his death, focuses on the former prime minister's almost unique (for a politician) indifference to the feelings she inspired in people as she pursued her vision.

What happened at the hands of this woman's indifference to sentiment and good sense in the early 1980s brought unnecessary calamity to the lives of several million people who lost their jobs. It led to riots that nobody needed. More insidiously, it fathered a mood of tolerated harshness. Materialistic individualism was blessed as a virtue, the driver of national success. Everything was justified as long as it made money – and this, too, is still with us.

A brief return to Brixton, south London, where people were gathering this evening to celebrate Lady Thatcher's demise. My colleague Liam Kelly sends this photograph of the nearby Ritzy cinema's now-showing board, which appears to have been given a post-Thatcher makeover. Liam says the sign was later changed to read: "MARGARET THATCHERS DEAD LOL"

An interesting Thatcher-linked incident in London's Theatreland this evening. The Press Association reports that the audience attending a performance of Billy Elliot, the musical set in northern England during the miners' strike, was asked to vote on whether a song about Margaret Thatcher's death should be performed or not.

According to PA, the second act of the musical begins with the song Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher which has lyrics that refer to celebrating the death of the former prime minister.

The news agency quotes a Billy Elliot insider saying: "It was taken seriously and debated and finally decided that it would be best to put it to a democratic vote to the audience.

"It was a near unanimous verdict to keep the song in and go ahead. It was an electric show."

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has offered his tribute to Lady Thatcher, calling her a "pioneering leader" and "great model". He said the former prime minister would "inspire many people around the world for peace and security and human rights".

We will miss her great leadership. She was a pioneering leader for her contribution to peace and security, particularly at the height of the Cold War.

She was also a great model as the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who not only demonstrated her leadership but has given such great hope for many women for equality, gender equality in Parliament.

We will owe a great deal to her leadership,” he said, adding that Ms. Thatcher’s leadership “will inspire many people around the world for peace and security and human rights.

Lady Thatcher's death gives Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell a chance to revisit his iconic caricature of the former Conservative leader and give her a final encounter with David Cameron, George Osborne and her long battle with the UK's mining industry.

But at its crudest, the Thatcher ethos translated into the get-rich-quick, greed-is-good spirit of the 1980s, satirised by Harry Enfield's Loadsamoney creation. The Big Bang of City deregulation, the Tell Sid scramble for buying and selling shares, the sense that money is the highest value, wealth the greatest sign of worth – all these were hallmarks of the Thatcher era in its mid-80s pomp. Few would argue that they have not endured. On the contrary, consumerism and materialism have been the norm ever since, rising inequality the consistent trend as the rich soar ever further away from the rest. Moreover, it's hard not to see the roots of the 2008 crash in the unshackling of the City two decades earlier.

A curious mix of awe and irreverence on the front of the Star. "The Iron Lady bows out," reads the headline alongside a late-in-life portrait photo of the former prime minister. But rather than clear its front page entirely for Lady Thatcher, it also offers headlines about Simon Cowell's (hetero) sexuality and Holly Willoughby's cleavage.

Here's the Guardian's front page. Another striking black and white image of Lady Thatcher, alongside a commentary by Hugo Young, her late biographer. "She became harder than hard," was his assessment. You can read the full piece here.

Novelist Salman Rushdie has added his voice to the tributes to Lady Thatcher. He praised her role in securing his protection following the death threat he received for writing The Satanic Verses.

"She had a great life, and offered protection for me when I needed it," he said, according to AP. "She was very considerate, and, surprisingly, touchy-feely. She would tap you on the arm and say, 'Everything OK?' I hadn't expected that touch of tenderness."

This is Barry Neild taking over the blog. I've just returned from Brixton in south London, where roughly 500 people have gathered for an impromptu street party to celebrate Margaret Thatcher's death. I left the party in full swing -- the crowd dancing to a thumping 1980s soundtrack, drums, horns and even a trombone. Also, plenty of cider and beer -- plus a few pints of milk in recognition of the former education minister's reputation for "snatching" free dairy drinks from school children. There were, of course, regular chants of "Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead" and a huge cheer when someone unfurled a banner proclaiming "the bitch is dead" from the balcony of a nearby cinema.

People gather at a street party for the death of Margaret Thatcher in Brixton. Photograph: Piero Cruciatti/Demotix/Corbis

Early evening summary

The death of a major political figure in old age is not always a matter of surprise or shock, but it is always a moment for reflection. Politicians shape our destiny and, since the 1940s, no prime minister has shaped our destiny more than Lady Thatcher. It's impossible to have a view about Thatcher without also forming a view about what's happened to Britain over the last 30 years, for better or for worse.

The debate has probably only just got underway. Here's how things stand this evening.

• David Cameron has led tributes to Lady Thatcher, while leaders around the world have also praised her contribution to world history. Here's what Cameron had to say.

We can't deny that Lady Thatcher divided opinion. For many of us, she was and is an inspiration. For others she was a force to be defined against.

But if there is one thing that cuts through all of this - one thing that runs through everything she did - it was her lion-hearted love for this country. She was the patriot Prime Minister and she fought for Britain's interests every single step of the way.

And here's an extract from President Obama's tribute.

With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. As a grocer’s daughter who rose to become Britain’s first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered.

• Cameron has announced that parliament will be recalled on Wednesday so that MPs can pay tribute to Lady Thatcher. Plans are already being drawn up for her funeral. She will have a ceremonial funeral, rather than a state funeral, and it is expected to take place next week. The date has not yet been announced.

• Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, has described Thatcher as someone who "moved the centre ground of British politics and was a huge figure on the world stage". In his tribute to her, he acknowledged that Labour disagreed with much of what she did, but he adopted a respectful tone, rather than a critical one. Labour frontbenchers have done the same, although other figures in the party have delivered a much harsher verdict. Neil Kinnock said she had been an "unmitigated disaster" (see 6.04pm) and Ken Livingstone said she was to blame for "every real problem" Britain faces today (see 2.42pm). Union leaders have generally been very quiet, and George Galloway is about the only high-profile figure in British politics who actually seems to have relished her death.

Politicians are generally polite about each other when they die. But what does the public at large think? It's hard to tell from where I've been sitting today, but a clearer picture will emerge as the week goes on.

What's your verdict on Lady Thatcher? That's a bit like asking for your verdict on modern Britain.

I'm finishing for the day, although a colleague may top up the blog as the night goes on.

Today we lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton. Margaret Thatcher didn't just lead our country - she saved our country.

And we should never forget that the odds were stacked against her. She was the shopkeeper's daughter from Grantham who made it to the highest office in the land. There were people who said she couldn't make it; who stood in her way; who said a woman couldn't lead. She defied them all.

She fought her way to a seat in Parliament...to the leadership of her party, and then to lead our country, winning the backing of the British people three times in a row.

She will be remembered for the big political battles she fought. Taking on the union barons. Privatising industry. Unleashing enterprise. Rescuing the economy. Letting people buy their council homes. Winning the Falklands War. Strengthening our defences. Helping to win the Cold War. Margaret Thatcher took a country that was on its knees and made Britain stand tall again.

We can't deny that Lady Thatcher divided opinion. For many of us, she was and is an inspiration. For others she was a force to be defined against.

But if there is one thing that cuts through all of this - one thing that runs through everything she did - it was her lion-hearted love for this country. She was the patriot Prime Minister and she fought for Britain's interests every single step of the way.

It is over 30 years since she stood here in Downing Street for the first time. And her impact - here and abroad - is still remarkable.

When you negotiate in Brussels, it is still her rebate you are defending. When you stand in Budapest, Warsaw or Prague, you are standing in nations whose liberty she always stood up for. When today we admire Britain's strongest companies, very often they are ones she helped transform from failing state monoliths to thriving private sector businesses. When people said that Britain could not be great again - she proved them wrong.

Margaret Thatcher loved this country and served it with all she had. For that she has her well-earned place in history - and the enduring respect and gratitude of the British people.

To show its respect, the Speaker has agreed to recall Parliament on Wednesday for a special session in which tributes will be paid.

Finally, let's remember that Margaret Thatcher was not just a great statesman, she was also a mother and grandmother - and our thoughts should be with her family tonight.

Her service as the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom was a history-making achievement. Her strength of conviction was recognised by her closest supporters and her strongest opponents. I extend my sincere condolences and those of my fellow Australians to her family and friends.

When Lady Thatcher was in power the head of the National Union of Minworkers was a household name. Today the NUM is a spent force, but it still has a general secretary, Chris Kitchen, and this is what he said about Lady Thatcher's death.

We've been waiting for a long time to hear the news of Baroness Thatcher's demise and I can't say I'm sorry. I've got no sympathy for Margaret Thatcher and I will not be shedding a tear for her. She's done untold damage to the mining community.

I don't think Margaret Thatcher had any sympathy for the mining communities she decimated, the people she threw on the dole and the state she left the country in.

I honestly can't think of anything good I can say about Margaret Thatcher.

Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan's widow, has put out this statement about Lady Thatcher.

I am terribly saddened today to learn of the death of Margaret Thatcher. The world has lost a true champion of freedom and democracy.

It is well known that my husband and Lady Thatcher enjoyed a very special relationship as leaders of their respective countries during one of the most difficult and pivotal periods in modern history. Ronnie and Margaret were political soul mates, committed to freedom and resolved to end Communism. As Prime Minister, Margaret had the clear vision and strong determination to stand up for her beliefs at a time when so many were afraid to “rock the boat.” As a result, she helped to bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of millions of people.

Ronnie and I knew her as a dear and trusted friend, and I will miss her. The United States knew Margaret as a spirited and courageous ally, and the world owes her a debt of gratitude.

Radio 4's PM programme broadcast a comment about Lady Thatcher from Neil Kinnock that was recorded in advance for use when she died. The statement that he put out earlier was relatively anodyne. (See 3.30pm.) But in this one, Kinnock described her as 'an unmitigated disaster" for Britain.

She was not a malicious person. She was a person who couldn't see, or didn't want to see, the unfairness and disadvantaging consequences of the application of what she thought to be a renewing ideology. Thatcherism was a personality presented through a particular vocabulary and set of attitudes which generally took a pride in insularity, domineering and a short-termism in the approach to management and conduct of political affairs which was conveyed as being for the long-term nourishment and well-being of the nation. But it was a frame of mind, not a political philosophy and not an economic policy. It was an unmitigated disaster for Britain because, if you recall, it commenced with a series of budget changes and use of interest rates which, combined with the fact that oil was monumentally coming on stream, pushed the price of the pound out of sight and succeeded in inflicting devastating harm on the productive base in Britain. That wasn't modernisation; that was devastation.

Number 10 has sent out more information about Lady Thatcher's funeral.

Here is the statement in full.

In line with the wishes of her family and with the Queen's consent, Lady Thatcher will receive a Ceremonial funeral with military honours. The service will be held at St Paul's Cathedral and is expected to take place next week.

A wide and diverse range of people and groups with connections to Lady Thatcher will be invited. The service will be followed by a private cremation.

The Funeral

The funeral will be a mix of the public and private. The service at St Paul’s Cathedral will be televised and members of the public can watch the coffin procession from the Palace of Westminster to St Paul’s.

Lady Thatcher’s wish was for the armed forces to be able to participate in the funeral – they will therefore have a key part to play.

On the day before the funeral, the coffin will be moved to Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster. There will be a short service following its arrival. The coffin will rest in the Chapel overnight.

On the day itself, the streets will be cleared of traffic and the coffin will travel by hearse from the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster to the Church of St Clement Danes, the RAF Chapel, on the Strand.

At the Church the coffin will be transferred to a gun carriage drawn by the King’s Troop Royal Artillery. The coffin will then be borne in Procession from St Clement Danes to St Paul’s Cathedral. The route will be lined by tri-service military personnel.

The coffin will be met at St Paul’s Cathedral by a guard of honour. Tri-service personnel and Pensioners of the Royal Hospital Chelsea will line the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral.

The coffin will be borne into and out of the Cathedral by a tri-service bearer party.

The guest list for St Paul’s will include family and friends of Lady Thatcher, those who worked with her over the years, including members of her Cabinets when she was Prime Minister, and representatives from a range of groups she was associated with. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister will attend and the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet will be invited.

Flags will be flown at half mast at Downing Street today and tomorrow, and will be again on the day of the funeral.

Information for the public

Lady Thatcher’s family have asked that, if people wish to pay their respects, they consider making a donation to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, rather than laying flowers. Details of how to do so available on the Royal Hospital Chelsea website http://www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/

The No.10 website (www.number10.gov.uk) will have a condolence pageon which people will be able to write private messages for the Thatcher family.

The public will be unable to attend the funeral service itself but can line the route of the funeral procession from the RAF Church in the Strand to St Paul’s Cathedral.

More reaction from the US

From John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives

The greatest peacetime prime minister in British history is dead. Margaret Thatcher, a grocer’s daughter, stared down elites, union bosses, and communists to win three consecutive elections, establish conservative principles in Western Europe, and bring down the Iron Curtain.

There was no secret to her values – hard work and personal responsibility – and no nonsense in her leadership. She once said, ‘Defeat? I do not recognize the meaning of the word.’ Now this lady who was never for turning goes to rest as grateful friends and allies around the world mourn her passing and pray for her loved ones.

Americans will always keep Lady Thatcher in our hearts for her loyalty to Ronald Reagan and their friendship that we all admired. At this difficult hour, I send the condolences of the U.S. House of Representatives to Prime Minister Cameron and the British people.

From Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, which describes itself as the largest tea party organisation

Lady Thatcher was a strong leader and vocal champion of fiscal responsibility and limiting the power of government, who was famously quoted as saying: ‘The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.’

As the modern day tea party movement has grown and matured, we have realized most of our battles are not new. They are the age-old battles between those who want to wield power over those of us who want to be free. Examples of such battles are seen throughout history including the examples of Margaret Thatcher. She and President Reagan fought for liberty, economic freedom, and limited government control.

Margaret Thatcher put it best: ‘Socialists cry Power to the people, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State.’

Earlier I mentioned Charles Moore, who is writing the authorised biography of Lady Thatcher. (See 3.19pm.) I've just had this news release from Allen Lane, who says the first volume will be published straight after the funeral.

The biography was commissioned in 1997 on the understanding that it would not be published during Lady Thatcher’s lifetime. Charles Moore was given full access to Lady Thatcher’s private papers and interviewed her extensively; she supported all his requests for interviews with others, including those who worked most closely with her and her own family. Permission was granted to former and existing civil servants to speak freely about the Thatcher years and Charles Moore was given early access to government papers held back from public view under the thirty-year rule. Lady Thatcher did not read the manuscript before her death earlier today.

Stuart Proffitt, one of the Publishing Directors of Allen Lane, comments,

“Charles Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher immediately supercedes all earlier books written about her. Having worked closely with Lady Thatcher on both volumes of her autobiography, and read all the other main books about her, I was astonished at how much Moore says which has never been public before. At the moment when she becomes a historical figure, this book also makes her into a three dimensional one for the first time. It gives unparalleled insight into her early life and formation, especially through her extensive correspondence with her sister, which Moore is the first author to draw on. It recreates brilliantly the atmosphere of British politics as she was making her way, and takes her up to what was arguably the zenith of her power, victory in the Falklands. (This volume ends with the Falklands Dinner in Downing Street in November 1982.) Moore is clearly an admirer of his subject, but he does not shy away from criticising her or identifying weaknesses and mistakes where he feels it is justified. It is, by any standards, an exceptionally impressive book and to be publishing it at this moment is a rare privilege.”

More reaction from South America

This is from my colleagues Roberta Radu in Buenos Aires, Jonathan Franklin in Santiago and Jonathan Watts.

Argentina's president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner - a fierce critic of Britain's policy towards the islands - has yet to comment on Thatcher's death, but the local media gave extensive and largely negative coverage. Clarin - the most popular newspaper - ran pieces on Thatcher's neoliberal economic legacy, the destruction of trade unions, support for apartheid and Chile's dictator General Augusto Pinochet.

One comment piece, by Alberto Amato, reminded readers that Thatcher was proud of her "Iron Lady" nickname, even though it was originally the term for a medievil torture device. Among the victims, he suggested, was Argentina.

"British Conservatives admired the rigor and ferocity with which Thatcher exercised power. The party ruled Britain for 15 years, 11 of them under Thatcher, and many linked tragically to Argentina."

Elsewhere in Latin America, where many countries are currently under left-wing governments, Thatcher's image is strong but largely negative.

Among the exceptions are former supporters of Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, who was a close friend of Thatcher's and a political ally who relied on the UK for international support at a time when his military government was being accused of killing, interning and tortured his enemies.

Pinochet died in 2006, but those close to him said Thatcher was a great statesman.

“Personally I see her as a world leader, who was consistent and absolute in her defense of her nation," said General Guillermo Garin, the retired Vice Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army. “Regarding Chile, during the military government, she was very brave. She recognized the origins of the [1973 military coup] and the benefits of the military government … She was a defender of the grand modernizations that Chile put in place and expressed her support versus a very hostile campaign run by the Soviet Union.”

“President Pinochet always had tremendous admiration for her, they had a very close relationship highlighted by the visit she made to his place of detention in London … They shared similar concepts of modernization of the state.”

Margaret Thatcher was the most divisive and destructive Prime Minister of modern times.

Mass Unemployment, factory closures, communities destroyed – this is her legacy. She was a fighter and her enemy was the British working class. Her victories were aided by the politically corrupt leaders of the Labour Party and of many Trades Unions. It is because of policies begun by her that we are in this mess today.

Other prime ministers have followed her path, notably Tony Blair. She was the organ grinder, he was the monkey.

Remember she called Mandela a terrorist and took tea with the torturer and murderer Pinochet.

How should we honour her? Let’s privatise her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It’s what she would have wanted.

Reaction from the Czech Republic

This is from my colleague Daniel McLaughlin.

In Prague, Vaclav Klaus, a staunch eurosceptic who has just left office after a decade as Czech president, called Thatcher's death “a huge loss for all supporters of freedom, democracy and market capitalism”.

“She was one of the most outstanding political personalities of the last quarter of the 20th century and I believe that with the passing of time, her name will not lose importance,” he said.

Klaus recalled that in recent meetings “I could see she was losing strength, but from her words I could always hear the old good 'Lady Thatcher'.”

Beneath the “iron” exterior was "a very kind, friendly, attentive and listening person," Klaus claimed, adding that was she “badly missed” on today's “increasingly anti-Thatcherite” European political scene.

Klaus noted Thatcher's speech in Bruges in 1988, when she warned that “suppression of nation states and concentration of power in Brussels will destroy Europe.”

Reaction from West Africa

My colleague Afua Hirsch has filed on what they are saying about Lady Thatcher in West Africa.

Thatcher's international policies attracted many critics in West Africa.

“Thatcher was warlike, and uncompromising in her ways. I know that in her country some people admired her for that, but to many of us that wasn’t impressive,” Ghana’s former president John Agyekum Kufuor said.

“We in Ghana were very critical of the way she lead her country into war in south America – she seemed too ready to resort to force to settle the Falklands. And her position on the ANC wasn’t acceptable. She proved to be too conservative, she didn’t seem to appreciate the rapidly changing world.”

Thatcher’s stance on apartheid, and her decision to let South African president P. W. Botha to visit Britian in 1984, brought her into sharp disagreement with many Africans. Nigeria led West African opposition apartheid, and nationalized local subsidiaries of British Petroleum and Barclays Bank in protest at their business dealings with the apartheid regime.

But speaking to the BBC earlier today, Nigeria's former military leader Ibrahim Babangida said that he had agreed with Thatcher’s policy on “constructive engagement” with South Africa, and that had informed Nigeria’s own stance.

“[Thatcher] told us that its about time that we engaged SA in constructive engagement, and that is perhaps the best way to get rid of apartheid

"I took her advice and invited De Klerk to this country,” Babangida said, speaking from Nigeria. “I think she was a fine example of a very courageous political leader. She is admired greatly by a majority of countries in Africa.”

Kufuor also said that there were aspects of her personal rise to power which he found inspiring.

“Thatcher proved to be exceptionally gifted leader of her time. The way she came up in politics from an early age, within a very traditional and male party like the Tory party, and broke through to become leader, that made her a pioneer.”

Many of Thatcher’s economic policies also influenced West African leaders, despite the ongoing controversy over the effects of free-market capitalism on the developing world.

“She was not only successful politician, I believe she was also a successful prime minister,” Kufuor added. “Economically she impacted her country’s fortunes with her policies. I personally appreciated her running of the private sector. She believed that there are only a few creators in this world, entrepreneurs and investors, and that you protect them – they are the people who will increase the wealth of the nation and create jobs for people. That is a philosophy I also subscribe to.”

“And her policy of enabling people to buy their own homes, that too was very attractive, it influenced us here in Ghana."

I was saddened to learn of the death of Lady Margaret Thatcher. The United Kingdom has lost its first woman Prime Minister, an iconic stateswoman, and a fearless leader. The United States has lost one of its dearest friends and most valued allies.

Lady Thatcher understood that the special relationship which has long united our two nations is an indispensable foundation for peace and prosperity. Our strong partnership today is part of her legacy. Like so many others, I respected the conviction and self-determination she displayed throughout her remarkable life as she broke barriers, defied expectations, and led her country. Hillary, Chelsea, and I extend our condolences to her family and to the people of the United Kingdom.

Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, has put a lengthy statement about Lady Thatcher on his website. Here's an extract.

Margaret Thatcher was an extraordinary woman but she was extraordinary for mostly the wrong reasons. So many of her policies were wrong and heartless. Nevertheless, I don’t rejoice in her death. I commiserate, as I do with the death of any person. In contrast, she showed no empathy for the victims of her harsh, ruthless policy decisions.

Reaction from India

My colleague Jason Burke has sent me this on the reaction from India.

Coverage in India, where almost half the population was born after Mrs Thatcher left power, has been muted. Televisions flashed the news but it has not displaced staples of cricket and local political developments.

A statement from Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, expressed his "deepest sadness on the passing away of former British Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher".

"She was a transformative figure under whom the United Kingdom registered important progress on the national and international arena. People of India join me in sending our sincerest condolences to the Thatcher family, the government and people of the United Kingdom,” he said.

“Very early on, [Indira Gandhi and I] struck up a close rapport, for we both felt the loneliness of high office and it was good to be able to talk to someone who understood … Gandhi's death by terrorism is forever linked in my mind with my own survival of it," Thatcher later said, IANS, an Indian news service, reported.

Thatcher said that she and Gandhi, who launched a massive nationalisation campaign which fundamentally changed India's economy and suspended democracy to impose a two year Emergency, "had very different ideas about politics”.

"But I found in her qualities which seem to me essential in a statesman. She was passionately proud of her own country, always courageous and very practical."

G.Parasathary, a senior Indian diplomat, said he remembered Thatcher's visits to India before she took power.

“I met her several times. She was quite charming and established an extremely good working relationship with Mrs Gandhi. They were ideologically quite different but got on very well. They had great mutual respect and that was very important in the early 1980s when Gandhi came back into power.”

Parasathary, who served as Rajiv Gandhi's spokesman, remembered that Thatcher's relationship with Rajiv Gandhi, Mrs Gandi's son who won power in the wake of her assasination, was less cordial however.

"I am afraid saying 'your mother told me' did not go down so well with the young prime minister. He was very committed to the cause of African liberation and the end of apartheid so that caused some disagreement. I saw him and another leader laughing at one conference on their way to the gents' toilets, joking that that was the one place Mrs Thatcher couldn't follow them.”

Earlier I quoted a spokesman from the UN Environment Programme saying that Lady Thatcher was one of the first world leaders to take the threat of global warming seriously. (See 4.13pm.) My colleague John Vidal has sent me this, with more on her environmental impact.

Thatcher will also be remembered for her short-lived “green period” in the late 1980s when she helped put climate change, or global warming as it was then known, acid rain and marine pollution on to the international map. Briefed by Sir Crispin Tickell, UK ambassador in Washington, she made two dramatic environment speeches.

The first, to the Royal Society in September 1988, galvanised the debate in Britain and helped increase membership of groups like Friends of the earth and Greenpeace. The ecological arguments she used were not new, but their impact on a scientifically-stretched public was profound:

"For generations, we have assumed that the efforts of mankind would leave the fundamental equilibrium of the world’s systems and atmosphere stable. But it is possible that with all these enormous changes (population, agricultural, use of fossil fuels) concentrated into such a short period of time, we have unwittingly begun a massive experiment with the system of this planet itself”, she said.

The second , in a passionate speech to the UN general assembly in November 1989, was aimed at the international community. Thatcher had by then understood the environment’s political significance in a globalising world and was the first major politician to hold out the prospect of climate legislation.

But the timing, was important at home, too, because the Greens looked dangerous after securing 15% of the UK vote in the European elections only months before.

“What we are now doing to the world, by degrading the land surfaces, by polluting the waters and by adding greenhouse gases to the air at an unprecedented rate - all this is new in the experience of the earth. It is mankind and his activities that are changing the environment of our planet in damaging and dangerous ways. The result is that change in future is likely to be more fundamental and more widespread than anything we have known hitherto. Change to the sea around us, change to the atmosphere above, leading in turn to change in the world’s climate, which could alter the way we live in the most fundamental way of all,” she said.

“The environmental challenge that confronts the whole world demands an equivalent response from the whole world. Every country will be affected and no one can opt out. Those countries who are industrialised must contribute more to help those who are not.”, she said.

She opened the Hadley Centre for climate prediction and research in 1990 but said little after that about the environment. By 2002 the climate debate had become highly politicised, and in her 2002 memoir she rejected Al Gore and what she called “doomist” predicions.

Last year Jonathon Poritt, head of Friends of the Earth in the late 1980s, recalled the effect she had on the debate: “Thatcher did more than anyone in the last 60 years to put green issues on the national agenda. From 1987/1988 when [she] started to talk about the ozone layer and acid rain and climate change, a lot of people who had said these issues were for the tree-hugging weirdos thought, ‘ooh, it’s Mrs Thatcher saying that, it must be serious’. She played a big part in the rise of green ideas by making it more accessible to large numbers of people.”

Reaction from Italy

This is from my colleague John Hooper, who has been rounding up the reaction in Italy.

Some of the earliest reactions in Italy were distinctly two-sided. In an interview with the web site of the daily La Repubblica, Dario Franceschini, the former leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said: “She changed economic policy and the politics of the whole of Europe. The Thatcher years introduced the years of the great privatisations; they influenced Reagan-ism in America [and] they brought in an unfettered capitalism that transformed Great Britain from the somnolent metropole of the former British empire into the metropole of globalisation.”

Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome and a former neo-fascist, said: “Though having criticised her positions and her toughness with respect to the rights of workers and social freedom, I cannot but bow before a woman who was a crucial figure in not just European, but world history”.

Writing for La Stampa, Vittorio Sabadin, the paper’s London correspondent during the Thatcher years, argued that: “the [economic] crisis we are experiencing is to some extent the wayward daughter of Margaret Thatcher’s policies.”

The women’s supplement of La Repubblica added a characteristically Italian touch with an analysis of Lo stile di Margaret.

“She hated image consultants and rejected their advice”, the magazine’s fashion expert wrote. “Even in matters of style, Margaret Thatcher was a woman averse to compromise. To call her an iron lady, however, would be mistaken. Apart from her legendary suits with their well-defined shoulders -- the symbols of an era -- her elegance was the result of hyper-feminine details: bows, strings of pearls, broaches and earrings.”

Reaction from Botswana

This is from Jeff Ramsay, spokesman for the government of Botswana.

Margaret Thatcher was a transformative politician who governed the UK in challenging times. She will be remembered for the role she played in the Lancaster House agreement which paved the way for Zimbabwe's independence. Our condolences go to her family.

Reaction from Zimbabwe

This is from Rugare Gumbo, a spokesman for Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

It's regrettable that she's passed away. She was a forceful character who assisted in bringing about independence for Zimbabwe. She was not like the Labour party's Blair regime which reneged on fundamental issues of land in the Lancaster House agreement.

She was a practical politician who saw reality, not illusions which Blair and his successor Brown did. They made life difficult for Zimbabwe, imposing sanctions which wreaked havoc on the economy.

Gumbo added: "We didn't agree with everything she did but we admired the courageous manner in which she did it."

More reaction from the US

“Margaret Thatcher was to me a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit. I was honoured to try to imagine her late life journey, after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side.”

The actress, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of the late prime minister, said Thatcher was a pioneer, willingly or unwillingly, for women in politics.

“To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, leveled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas - wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now-without corruption - I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle.”

Streep added: “To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable.”

The report continued: “Her polarizing success owed itself not only to her politics but to her personality, that hectoring self-assurance that made her a political juggernaut, part nanny and part Boadicea, Briton's first-century warrior queen. To say she was not plagued by self-doubt would have been an understatement.”

François Hollande, the French president, has now issued his tribute to Lady Thatcher. Here's the statement put out on his behalf.

With Margaret Thatcher's death, a great personality who profoundly marked the history of her country during the eleven and a half years she was the Prime Minister of Great Britain, has gone. Throughout her public life, with the conservative beliefs that she fully assumed, she nurtured the influence of the United Kingdom and the defence of its interests.

The relations she maintained with France were always frank and loyal. She knew how to build a constructive and fruitful dialogue with François Mitterrand. Together, they set about reinforcing the ties between our two countries. It was in that era that Mme Thatcher gave the decisive push to the construction of the Channel tunnel.

The president of the Republic would like to express his strong and sincere condolences to the family and friends of Margaret Thatcher and address the British people in a spirit of solidarity.

And here is some more reaction that I've taken from the Press Association wires.

From William Hague, the foreign secretary and former Conservative leader

She gave the country hope in so many ways and also gave great hope to millions of people around the world, particularly those behind the Iron Curtain, that they could be free ... She was personally a very, very considerate person to colleagues and to their families and that's a side of her not obvious to the public and which makes this an even sadder day.

From Lord Wakeham, chief whip in Lady Thatcher's government for four years.

It is a very, very sad day, she was absolutely the beginning and end of my political life, I devoted my political life to her and it's sad it's all come to an end. She was the greatest peacetime Prime Minister that we have had in the last century, she changed so many things, and had great determination ... She was a wonderful person to work for, I don't think I ever went to a meeting where she wasn't the best briefed person there, she really knew her stuff.

From Lord Lamont, the former Conservative chancellor

She had more courage than anyone I have ever known. The word impossible barely existed for her. We shall not see her like again.

From John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons

I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Baroness Thatcher. She was a distinguished Parliamentarian and a formidable prime minister. My thoughts are with her family during this difficult time.

From Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

Mrs Thatcher triggered powerful reactions nationally and globally, but without doubt she was the first - or among the first - world leader to recognise the threat posed to humanity by climate change and at the UN General Assembly in 1989 to call for a global treaty, which indeed happened at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

While her position may have softened in later years, Mrs Thatcher's sense of urgency and understanding of the science as a trained chemist provided much-needed leadership and political focus at the time.

From Conservative MP James Gray

Margaret Thatcher was a giant of the political world. She gave millions of ordinary people the ability - and the right - to better themselves and their families. We owe her so much, and I, for one, am proud to salute her memory.

From Mike Summers, a member of the legislative assembly of the Falkland Islands

It is with great sadness that we received news of the death of Baroness Thatcher this morning. She will be forever remembered in the Islands for her decisiveness in sending a task force to liberate our home following the Argentine invasion in 1982.

And here's from what Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, is saying about Lady Thatcher.

Margaret Thatcher did great hurt to the Irish and British people during her time as British prime minister. Working class communities were devastated in Britain because of her policies. Her role in international affairs was equally belligerent whether in support of the Chilean dictator Pinochet, her opposition to sanctions against Apartheid South Africa; and her support for the Khmer Rouge.

Here in Ireland her espousal of old draconian militaristic policies prolonged the war and caused great suffering. Her failed efforts to criminalise the republican struggle and the political prisoners is part of her legacy. It should be noted that in complete contradiction of her public posturing, she authorised a back channel of communications with the Sinn Fein leadership but failed to act on the logic of this. Unfortunately she was faced with weak Irish governments who failed to oppose her securocrat agenda or to enlist international support in defence of citizens in the north.

Margaret Thatcher will be especially remembered for her shameful role during the epic hunger strikes of 1980 and '81. Her Irish policy failed miserably.

Sinn Fein is now the second largest party in Northern Ireland and part of the Northern Ireland government. But in the 1980s it was best known as the political wing of the IRA, the terrorist group that almost killed Lady Thatcher when it bombed the Grand Hotel during the Conservative party conference in 1984.

Mrs Thatcher was a formidable political leader who had a significant impact on British, European and world politics. During her 11 years as prime minister, she defined an era in British public life.

While her period of office came at a challenging time for British-Irish relations, when the violent conflict in Northern Ireland was at its peak, Mrs Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement which laid the foundation for improved North-South cooperation and ultimately the Good Friday Agreement.

I extend my deepest sympathies to her family and the prime minister David Cameron.

More reaction from Northern Ireland

From John Hume, former leader of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour party:

Events in Ireland dominated and defined Margaret Thatcher's time as prime minister. Her hardline, belligerent and uncompromising approach during the hunger strikes won her few friends among nationalists.

There is no doubt that her actions caused great hurt and harm. As a result she remained an extremely divisive figure and we clashed politically on many occasions over our differing views on how to achieve a peaceful solution to the situation in the north.

However, with the help of American influence, she had the strength to withstand unionist intransigence and sign up to the Anglo Irish Agreement. This was a significant move and a key foundation stone in the beginning of our peace process which culminated in the signing of the Good Friday Agreement 15 years ago tomorrow.

From Ian Paisley Snr, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist party:

Our country has become much the poorer for the passing of Baroness Thatcher.

In every phase of life she was great - great as a woman, great as a wife, great as a mother, great as a political candidate, great as a member of Parliament, especially as the first woman prime minister, great as a winner of the war, and great as a member of the House of Lords.

I had many meetings with her when I put Ulster's case before her and condemned some of her actions in relation to this province.

Nevertheless, through good report and ill report, she listened to the views of the unionist people, and respected them.

Today we salute her as a truly great leader and offer our sympathy to her son and daughter.

From Mike Nesbitt, leader of the Ulster Unionist party:

Whilst we in the Ulster Unionist Party would not have agreed with her on everything, particularly the Anglo Irish Agreement, Northern Ireland has reason to be eternally grateful for her stance against terrorism, not least during the hunger strikes when Northern Ireland was on the edge of something catastrophic.

Whatever you thought of her as a politician she was a remarkable public servant who stood by her beliefs and courageously fought against the odds on the national, European and world stage.

It was with sadness that I heard the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher and my prayers are with her son and daughter, her grandchildren, family and friends. It is right that today we give thanks for a life devoted to public service, acknowledging also the faith that inspired and sustained her.

More reaction from South Africa

Here's a statement from the ANC on the death of Lady Thatcher.

The African National Congress has learned with sadness of the passing of Mrs Margaret Thatcher the former prime minister of Britain at the age of 87. Her passing signal the end of a generation of leaders that ruled during a very difficult period characterised by the dynamics of the cold war. Her tenure as prime minister redefined British politics and public administration and these impacted greatly on the European politics and governance.

The ANC was on the receiving end of her policy in terms of refusing to recognise the ANC as the representatives of South Africans and her failure to isolate apartheid after it had been described as a crime against humanity; however, we acknowledge that she was one of the strong leaders in Britain and Europe to an extend that some of her policies dominate discourse in the public service structures of the world. Long after her passing on, her impact will still be felt and her views a subject of discussion.

The ANC extends its condolences to her family, her loved ones and the people of Britain. May her soul rest in peace!

And this is from Dali Tambo, son of former ANC president Oliver Tambo.

My gut reaction now is what it was at the time when she said my father was the leader of a terrorist organisation. I don't think she ever got it that every day she opposed sanctions, more people were dying, and that the best thing for the assets she wanted to protect was democracy.

Many lives were lost. It's a shame that we could never call her one of the champions of the liberation struggle. Normally we say that when one of us goes, the ANC ancestors will meet them at the pearly gates and give them a standing ovation. I think it's quite likely that when Margaret Thatcher reaches the pearly gates, the ANC will boycott the occasion.

Sir John Major replaced Lady Thatcher as prime minister after she was forced out by her party in 1990. This is what he said about her on BBC News just now.

Margaret was at her best when she had a definable enemy and a definable goal, and in the 1980s there were a rich selection of them and she pursued them, and we are the beneficiaries of that ...

The economy was in a frightful mess in the 1970s. Nobody believed it would reformed. Nobody believed we could move from a neo-socialist economy to a free market economy. And that's effectively what she achieved in the first eight years.

Lady Thatcher was no great friend of the Germans, but this is what Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is saying about her today.

The freedom of the individual stood at the core of her beliefs; therefore, Margaret Thatcher recognised the power of the freedom movement in east Europe early on and supported it. I will not forget her part in overcoming the European division and in the end of the cold war.

Margaret Thatcher was not a politician for women, but that she led the highest democratic office as a woman, in times where that was not a given, she set an example for many after her. My sympathy and condolences go out to her children.

Lech Walesa, former Solidarity leader and ex-Polish president, said he was "praying for" Thatcher. "She was a great person. She did a great deal for the world, along with Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Solidarity, she contributed to the demise of communism in Poland and Central Europe," Walesa told the AFP news agency.

We've had a tribute from George W Bush. Now here's a statement from his father, George Bush, who became US president when Lady Thatcher was prime minister.

Barbara and I were deeply saddened to learn of Baroness Thatcher's passing, and extend our heartfelt condolences to her children and loved ones. Margaret was, to be sure, one of the 20th Century's fiercest advocates of freedom and free markets -- a leader of rare character who carried high the banner of her convictions, and whose principles in the end helped shape a better, freer world. The personal grief we Bushes feel is compounded by the knowledge that America has lost one of the staunchest allies we have ever known; and yet we have confidence that her sterling record of accomplishment will inspire future generations. May God bless the memory of Margaret Thatcher.

With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. As a grocer’s daughter who rose to become Britain’s first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered. As prime minister, she helped restore the confidence and pride that has always been the hallmark of Britain at its best. And as an unapologetic supporter of our transatlantic alliance, she knew that with strength and resolve we could win the cold war and extend freedom’s promise.

Here in America, many of us will never forget her standing shoulder to shoulder with President Reagan, reminding the world that we are not simply carried along by the currents of history — we can shape them with moral conviction, unyielding courage and iron will. Michelle and I send our thoughts to the Thatcher family and all the British people as we carry on the work to which she dedicated her life — free peoples standing together, determined to write our own destiny.

For most of her time as prime minister Lady Thatcher was facing Neil Kinnock as Labour leader. Relationships between a prime minister and a leader of the opposition are rarely warm, but their relationship was particularly frosty. This is what Kinnock has said about her today.

I recognise and admire the great distinction of Baroness Thatcher as the first woman to become leader of a major UK political party and prime minister. I am sorry to hear of her death and offer my sympathy to her family.

Nobody needs to tell me how divisive her politics were on the ground. Tottenham in the mid-1980s was often not a fun place to be. Yet nobody can deny that she had a vision, as well as the strength and courage to see that vision become a reality. Those qualities are to be admired, regardless of the disagreements we may rightly have with the effects of her policies on the people we stand up for.

Reaction from Spain

This is from my colleague Martin Roberts.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy hailed Thatcher as "a true landmark in 20th-century history" and said today was "a sad day for Europe as a whole."

"Margaret Thatcher led the UK government at a key moment in history. Her unerring commitment to freedom, democracy and the rule of law, as well as her firm determination to reform, constitute a most valuable legacy for European leaders who, akin to the 80s when it was her turn to be in power, have to face very complex challenges which require greatly ambitious stances and political courage," added Rajoy, of the conservative People's Party, after a meeting in Madrid with David Cameron, who left before a scheduled news conference to head back to London.

Reaction from Russia

It was the Russians (a Soviet army newspaper, I think) who dubbed Margaret Thatcher the "Iron Lady" in the 1970s. This is what they are saying about Lady Thatcher in Russia today. It's from my colleague Miriam Elder.

There are few things Russian officialdom respects more than a strong leader and, to them, Margaret Thatcher was it. It was Krasnaya Zvezda, the Red Army’s newspaper, that dubbed her the “Iron Lady” in a 1977 article. The title stuck around. The Soviet Union didn’t.

She forged a warm relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet premier. The 82-year-old Gorbachev said on Monday: “Margaret Thatcher was a big political figure and a bright person. She will remain in our memory and in history.”

The news of Margaret Thatcher's death is a sad thing. I knew she was seriously ill, the last time we saw each other was several years ago,” he said.

Speaking to the Interfax news agency he said the two leaders’ relations “were difficult at times, not always smooth, but, serious and responsible from both sides.”

"Personal relations formed gradually and became more and more friendly,” he said. “Eventually, we managed to reach mutual understanding and it was a contribution to changing the atmosphere between our country and the West and to stopping the cold war."

Thatcher was unswerving in her criticism of the “evil empire”.

“Until her coming to power, the western establishment thought that the USSR and communism were permanent, so you don’t have to struggle against them, but come to terms with them,” the influential political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky told the Izvestiya newspaper on Monday. “It was Thatcher and then Reagen who brought the totally new idea that communism can be beaten and destroyed. And they did it.”

It was an unswerving position that elevated her to soaring heights among Russia’s, ironically liberal, classes. Boris Nemtsov, a former Kremlin official turned opposition leader, compared Thatcher to the last Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev: “Neither one nor the other was loved in their motherland, but were respected abroad.”

Anatoly Adamshin, a deputy foreign minister in the last Soviet cabinet, said: “She is dear to me because from the very beginning, she felt that Gorbachev is the kind of leader that wants to do a lot for his country and supported him from the very beginning.”

Even Russia’s hardliners found something to respect.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Communist deputy Leonid Kalashnikov said: “She is the greatest woman, the greatest politician – as an opponent, I always respected her.”

“And how she, with the Americans ‘strangled’ the Soviet Union is also worth quite a lot – because she did it correctly, logically and in their own interests,” he said. “Our men-politicians need to learn from her, how to stand up for the national interests of your country,” he said.

Reaction from the US

Henry Kissinger, secretary of state under presidents Nixon and Ford, told CNN: “She was a leader of strong convictions, great leadership abilities and extraordinary personality. She was a woman who [knew that] a leader needed to have strong convictions because the public had no way of orienting itself unless its leadership, its leaders gave it the real push. She didn’t think it was her job to find the middle ground.”

Unsurprisingly, Republicans were particularly moved. Former presidential candidate, senator John McCain, called her one of the great leaders of the 20th century on Twitter.

Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, said in a statement that believers in “small-government principles throughout the world” lost an icon. "With her strength of character and unfaltering conviction, she forged a new path forward along with another hero of the conservative approach to government, former President Ronald Reagan."

Reaction from Argentina

And here's a flavour of what they are saying in Argentina. This is from my colleague Roberta Radu.

This is what Ernesto Alberto Alonso,president of the national commission of ex combatants of the Malvinas, said:

"Like any person when someone dies, I started to reflect on the achievements and faults of the Prime Minister. She was a person who caused not only great harm domestically but also internationally. I will always think of her as a leader who brought no contributions to world peace. In many ways, I think she was similar to the military dictatorship here, and in particular Galtieri. She will be remembered as a leader who gave nothing positive to the human kind".

He also said that he was with other veterans in La Plata helping with floods donation and was surprised by the news. Other veterans agree to this opinion and say "she was not a good person".

Reaction from the Falkland Islands

My colleague Jon Watts has managed to speak to Rosie King, a Falkland Islander who has lived in Port Stanley since before the 1982 war.

Like many on the island - which celebrates Thatcher Day every 10 January - King sees Thatcher as a heroine.

"She was probably the number one person in our history. We received this news with great sadness even though it was expected because we knew she was very poorly....There will definitely be a memorial service here and flags will fly at half mast."

"I was 25 at the time of the war. It was mind-blowing when we heard on the radio that Thatcher would send a taskforce. When she arrived afterwards, it was like a visit from the Queen."

"I met her on a street corner and we chatted very comfortably. It wasn't like she was a big world leader. She wasn't as harsh as she was portrayed and she she was smaller than I imagined ... It was one of the most memorable moments of my life."

Reaction from Germany

My colleague Louise Osborne has sent me this from Germany.

The German national newspaper, the Süddeutsche Zeitung writes of Margaret Thatcher as a “tough reformer” who really “showed the men, without being a feminist”. The paper said she would be “deified in her death – and hated”.

The former German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, who oversaw reunification in Germany, was even scared of the Iron Lady, says the paper. However, the Süddeutsche notes that not much has been seen of Thatcher in recent years and that she had become vulnerable and lived isolated in her home on Chester Square in London’s Belgravia – not an image fit for the “conservative icon who until recently had preached the maxim of survival of the fittest”

The German newspaper, Die Welt, meanwhile, says Baroness Thatcher as the first woman to head British policy has left a “last impression”.

It also quotes German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle as he said she “leaves behind a big legacy for European history. We look upon her life’s work with wonderment.”

I have learned with great sadness of the death of Baroness Thatcher. She will be remembered not only as one of Britain’s greatest Prime Ministers but also as a leader whose policies and approach had a significant impact on politics throughout the world.

Although she was always a steadfast critic of apartheid, she had a much better grasp of the complexities and geo-strategic realities of South Africa than many of her contemporaries. She consistently, and correctly, believed that much more could be achieved through constructive engagement with the South African government than through draconian sanctions and isolation. She also understood the need to consider the concerns and aspirations of all South Africans in their search for constitutional consensus.

For this reason she was able to play a positive role in supporting our own process of non-racial constitutional transformation in South Africa. From my first meeting with her in London after my election as leader of the National Party in 1989 and throughout the rest of her tenure as Prime Minister, she gave strong and valued to support to me and to all other leaders who were working for a peaceful, prosperous, and constitutional future for South Africa.

We met in the Cape and in London many times after her retirement from office - and before her stroke in 2002. I am honoured to have had Margaret Thatcher as a friend.

“No doubt there will now be a renewed debate about the impact of that legacy.

“Today, however, the proper reaction should be respect and condolences to her family."

Salmond's parliamentary career began when Thatcher was PM; he first became a Scottish National party MP in June 1987, during the peak of protests against the “poll tax”, which Thatcher trialled in Scotland. He once described her administration as “a government of occupation” in Scotland, since it returned so few Tory MPs.

Here's the tribute from the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Today I mourn the passing of Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher. She was truly a great leader, a woman of principle, of determination, of conviction, of strength; a woman of greatness. She was a staunch friend of Israel and the Jewish people. She inspired a generation of political leaders. I send my most sincere condolences to her family and to the government and people of Great Britain.

Reaction from China

My colleague Tania Branigan has sent me this from China.

The rolling news channel of China's state broadcaster CCTV quickly ran a package about the death of the "tie niangzi" - Iron Lady - noting her meetings with then leader Deng Xiaoping to discuss the handover of Hong Kong, but devoting as much time to her childhood, rise through the ranks and political career. It noted her free market policies, concerns about the wealth gap and unemployment rate under her governments, and the Falklands War. But she was far down the running order of the hourly news broadcast.

Shi Yinhong, an expert on foreign relations at Renmin University, said: "I think Chinese people respected her and positively assessed her historical role." Although in the process of Hong Kong's return to China and the negotiations there were some difficulties between Mrs Thatcher and our great leader Deng Xiaoping, Britain and China successfully overcame them and both sides made efforts to smooth the transfer of sovereignty. "My guess is that they had something in common in their strategic and political responsibilities. Both were very determined, responsible people who were not afraid to speak frankly to the other side. They could respect and understand each other's national interests."

Most Labour politicians are being respectful today in their comments on Lady Thatcher's death. But Ken Livingstone, who was the Labour leader of the Greater London Council when the Thatcher government abolished it and subsequently mayor of London, told Sky News that she was to blame for many of the problems facing Britain today.

She created today's housing crisis. She created the banking crisis. And she created the benefits crisis. It was her government that started putting people on incapacity benefit rather than register them as unemployed because the Britain she inherited was broadly full employment. She decided when she wrote off our manufacturing industry that she could live with two or three million unemployed, and the benefits bill, the legacy of that, we are struggling with today. In actual fact, every real problem we face today is the legacy of the fact that she was fundamentally wrong.

Reaction from Scotland

My colleague Severin Carrell has sent me this from Scotland.

In Scotland, where the Tories' electoral standing plummeted in the Thatcher and immediate post-Thatcher years to finally leave them in 1997 with no MPs from Scottish seats at Westminster, the Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said the former premier was a “true Conservative revolutionary - challenging out-dated institutions, confronting vested interests and transforming Britain into a property-owning democracy."

Davidson went on:

“She empowered millions of people in a way that was previously unimaginable and the positive impact of her legacy with be felt by thousands of families for decades to come.

“In becoming Britain's first woman prime minister and winning three consecutive elections she didn't so much smash the glass ceiling as blow it to pieces.

“She proved to women everywhere there was nothing they couldn't accomplish.

“Baroness Thatcher defended Britain's sovereignty against opposition both at home and internationally and re-established Britain's reputation on the world stage, and the whole of the free world should be grateful for the crucial role she played in the downfall of Communism.

“She will go down in history as one of the truly great prime ministers.”

While some 412,000 Scots voted Tory in 2010, roughly a tenth of the overall electorate, and while there are 15 Tory MSPs at Holyrood thanks to the proportional voting system for the Scottish parliament, Tory support is still thinly spread – there is still only one Tory MP in a Scottish seat, the lonely Scotland Office minister David Mundell.

Reaction from European Union

Let me, on behalf of myself and the European Commission, say that I was deeply saddened to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher.

She was without doubt a great stateswoman, the first female Prime Minister of her country, and a circumspect yet engaged player in the European Union. She will be remembered for both her contributions to and her reserves about our common project.

She signed the Single European Act and helped bring about the Single Market. She was a leading player in bringing into the European family the Central and Eastern European countries which were formerly behind the Iron Curtain. As you remember, Britain under Mrs Thatcher's leadership was very supportive of the enlargement of the European Union.

Her legacy has done much to shape the United Kingdom as we know it today, including the special role of the United Kingdom in the European Union that endures to this day.

I would like to convey my deepest regrets to the Government and people of the United Kingdom.

From Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament

Margaret Thatcher marked British and European political life. Despite our clear political differences, Margaret Thatcher is a figure of historic significance. Margaret Thatcher at the beginning of her tenure was a committed European, signing and pushing for the single European act which transformed the EU single market. No matter whether one agrees with her policies or not, Margaret Thatcher showed that politics still has the capacity to be a force for change.

Gordon Brown, the Labour former prime minister, has put out his this statement.

Sarah and I have sent messages to Lady Thatcher's son Mark and daughter Carol, offering our condolences to them and to the Thatcher family and commemorating Lady Thatcher's many decades of service to our country.

She will be remembered not only for being Britain's first female Prime Minister and holding the office for 11 years, but also for the determination and resilience with which she carried out all her duties throughout her public life. Even those who disagreed with her never doubted the strength of her convictions and her unwavering belief in Britain's destiny in the world.

During our time in Number 10, Sarah and I invited Lady Thatcher to revisit Downing Street and Chequers - something which we know she enjoyed very much. But it was sad for her and her family that she lost her devoted husband Denis almost 10 years ago and that she was unable to enjoy good health in the later years of her retirement.

Here's Sir Bernard Ingham, press secretary to Lady Thatcher when she was prime minister, paying his own tribute.

It's a very sad day. We have lost the outstanding peacetime prime minister of the 20th century. She was the perfect prime minister - she knew what she wanted to do, and did it. Her 11 years were quite outstanding, and raised the standing of Britain in the world, and changed the nature of Britain itself.

Tony Blair, the Labour former prime minister, has issued his tribute. He described Lady Thatcher as "a towering political figure".

Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader. Her global impact was vast. And some of the changes she made in Britain were, in certain respects at least, retained by the 1997 Labour government, and came to be implemented by governments around the world.

Reaction from Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland Conservatives were first from the province to express their thoughts about Margaret Thatcher's death.

The local Tory chairman, Irwin Armstrong, has paid tribute to Baroness Thatcher.

Armstrong said: “Mrs Thatcher was a truly great prime minister who led the United Kingdom through a difficult time, transformed its economic fortune and changed it for the better”, Irwin noted. “She epitomised that much sought after political quality: leadership. She did not shirk difficult decisions and she did what had to be done in transforming the post war economy into a modern economy.”

The reaction from others on this side of the Irish Sea will be mixed with republicans of all hues regarding her as a hate figure whom they blame for the deaths of the 10 hunger strikers in 1981. The Provisional IRA of course came close to killing her in the Brighton Bomb at the 1984 Tory Conference.

However, unionists too will have complex emotions about a Prime Minister whom they first regarded in 1979 as perhaps their greatest ally in terms of protecting the union. Thatcher famously described Northern Ireland as "British as Finchely", referencing her own constituency to assure unionists she was on their side.

None the less just a year after the Brigton Bomb Thatcher enraged unionists for signing the Anglo Irish Agreement, which gave the Irish Republic more say in overseeing the running of Northern Ireland. Thatcher agreed to allow the Republic to scrutinise British policy via its own Secretariat in Belfast. All unionists envisaged this as a betrayal and in a mass loyalist rally outside Belfast City Hall in November 1985 they burned effigies of the then Prime Minister alongside the flag of the Irish Republic.

She turned into one of Britain's great leaders. It was a privilege to spend time with her and Virgin wouldn't be flying form Heathrow if it wasn't for her believing in competition. She was a great believer in competition and she'll have a very important place in the history books.

From John Cridland, the director general of the CBI

Baroness Thatcher’s leadership took the UK out of the economic relegation zone and into the first division. What Baroness Thatcher did to reshape the British economy gave us a generation of growth.

Reaction from South Africa

My colleague David Smith has sent me this on the reaction from South Africa.

South Africa's governing African National Congress, once dismissed by Thatcher as "a typical terrorist organisation", did not linger on her refusal to back sanctions against the apartheid regime but instead paid warm tribute.

"It's something we went past," spokesman Keith Khoza said. "Our position was vindicated by the people of Britain who embraced anti-apartheid policies with such enthusiasm that, even though she disagreed, Margaret Thatcher was forced to acknowledge us."

Khoza continued: "The passing of Margaret Thatcher is a sad moment not only for the British people but people of the world because when she was prime minister her leadership was felt all over the world. She set standards in public leadership.

"She was the first female prime minister to lead one of the major economies of the world. That makes her a remarkable leader."

She will be remembered as a unique figure. She reshaped the politics of a whole generation. She was Britain's first woman Prime Minister. She moved the centre ground of British politics and was a huge figure on the world stage.

The Labour Party disagreed with much of what she did and she will always remain a controversial figure. But we can disagree and also greatly respect her political achievements and her personal strength.

She also defined the politics of the 1980s. David Cameron, Nick Clegg and I all grew up in a politics shaped by Lady Thatcher. We took different paths but with her as the crucial figure of that era.

She coped with her final, difficult years with dignity and courage. Critics and supporters will remember her in her prime.

David Cameron, the prime minister, has now has given a brief interview to the broadcasters about Lady Thatcher.

Today is a truly sad day for our country. We've lost a great prime minister, a great leader, a great Briton. As our first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds. And the real thing about Margaret Thatcher is she did not just lead our country, she saved our country. And I believe she will go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister.

Today is obviously a day we should most of all think of her family. We've lost someone great in public life, but they've lost a much-loved mother and grandmother and we should think of them today.

Reaction from France

My colleague Kim Willsher has sent me this with some reaction from France.

"Death of Margaret Thatcher: The Queen is 'sad'." In a pre-written obituary, Le Monde wrote: "Her sobriquet: 'The Iron Lady'. She demonstrated the character traits that founded her reputation: an inflexible will, bordering on intransigence; an almost faultless self control; above all, the certainty of being right against all winds and tides. So many "virtues" forged in the family atmosphere of an austere childhood."

Le Monde also reminds us of what President François Mitterrand said of her: "She has the mouth of Marilyn (Monroe) and the look of Caligula", and the phrase for which she is probably best known in France, "I want my money back", said at her first European summit.

Some commentators on the Le Monde site were less friendly. "They must be mightily happy in the English regions ruined by the Iron Lady! I should admit that this fine day, a red letter day, I will raise a glass with them!," wrote Etienne Halleck. Elisabeth Benoiste: "A great loss for the ultra-liberal idealogoy. Sadly her harmful legacy continues (given the current situation in GB). Areuareu wrote: "And don't come back no more no more." Ernest E added: "Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were the western leaders who defeated the USSR. As such they deserve respect and hommage. In their own countries they brought a new politics that shook up the social classes..." Jean-Paul Bourbigot added: "A sad thought for Bobby Sands and the others who were less well known. A thought also for the Welsh miners."

Downing Street can announce that, with the Queen's consent, Lady Thatcher will receive a ceremonial funeral with military honours. The service will be held at St Paul's Cathedral. A wide and diverse range of people and groups with connections to Lady Thatcher will be invited. The service will be followed by a private cremation. All the arrangements being put in place are in line with wishes of Lady Thatcher's family. Further details will be published over the coming days.

Here's Robert Halfon, the backbench Conservative MP for Harlow, on Lady Thatcher.

Truly great people come along once a generation and Margaret Thatcher was one of our greatest prime ministers and our first woman PM.

Mrs Thatcher made Britain a power in the world, reformed our economy, established popular capitalism and enabled millions of lower earners to purchase their own council homes under Right to Buy. She was a real One Nation Conservative.

She was a huge influence on my own politics - and was one of the reasons I first decided to become a Conservative. Her influence on the Conservative party as a whole is almost unparalleled.

Margaret Thatcher's statue in the House of Common members' lobby will be all the more special now.

Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has said that Lady Thatcher was the reason I came into politics".

Watching her set out to change Britain for the better in 1979 made me believe there was, at last, real purpose and real leadership in politics once again. She bestrode the political world like a colossus. This is dreadfully sad news and my thoughts and prayers are with her family.

Margaret Thatcher was the greatest of modern British Prime Ministers, and was central to the huge transformation of the whole world that took place after the fall of the Soviet Union. Millions of people in Britain and around the world owe her a debt of gratitude for their freedom and their quality of life, which was made possible by her courageous commitment to the principles of individual freedom and responsibility. Her passing is a very sad event and she will be greatly missed.

I have always said that Mrs Thatcher was a great inspiration to me personally. Whether you loved her or hated her nobody could deny that she was a great patriot, who believed passionately in this country and her people. A towering figure in recent British and political history has passed from the stage. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.

The Press Association has filed an obituary from Chris Moncrieff, its former political editor. Here is how it starts.

Margaret Thatcher was the woman who, virtually single-handed and in the space of one tumultuous decade, transformed a nation.

In the view of her many admirers, she thrust a strike-infested half-pace Britain back among the front-runners in the commanding peaks of the industrial nations of the world. Her detractors, many of them just as vociferous, saw her as the personification of an uncaring new political philosophy known by both sides as Thatcherism.

Tireless, fearless, unshakeable and always in command, she was Britain's first woman prime minister - and the first leader to win three General Elections in a row.

Mrs Thatcher, who became Baroness Thatcher, resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990 after a year in which her fortunes plummeted.

It was a year in which she faced a series of damaging resignations from the Cabinet, her own political judgments were publicly denounced by her own colleagues, catastrophic by-election humiliations, internal party strife, and a sense in the country that people had had enough of her after 11 years in power.

But history will almost certainly proclaim her as one of the greatest British peacetime leaders.

Her supporters believe she put the drive back into the British people.

And as she transformed the nation - attempting to release the grip of the state on massive industries and public services alike - she strode the earth as one of the most influential, talked-about, listened-to and dominant statesmen of the Western world.

When Argentina invaded the Falklands, she despatched a task force to the South Atlantic which drove the enemy off the islands in an incomparable military operation 8,000 miles from home.

Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, has put out a response to the Nick Clegg speech.

Nick Clegg won't pull the wool over anyone's eyes on his tax cut for people earning over £150,000. Everyone knows that, having cut tax credits and increased VAT, they are now cutting tax for the richest. While families are on average £891 worse off this year compared to 2010, taking all tax and benefit changes into account.

Nick Clegg launches the Lib Dem local election campaign

I'll post more from the Ed Miliband launch later. But now it's time to turn to Nick Clegg.

Extracts from Clegg's speech were released overnight. As well as having a go at wasteful spending by Labour and Tory councils (see 9.48am), he is stressing that Lib Dems' role in raising the tax allowance.

Today is the first working day of the new tax year.

Today, because of Liberal Democrat tax reforms, more of the money you earn will go into your own pocket, and less to the tax man.

That's because we’ve raised the point at which you start paying income tax, and now over 20 million people will pay £600 less in income tax than they did under Labour ...

I know that Labour are trying desperately to gloss over these changes. They want to pretend that the only tax change this week is the reduction of the top rate, from 50p to 45p.

But it’s the same old selective amnesia we always get from the two Eds about Labour's time in office. Out of the thirteen years they were in power, Labour had the 50p rate in place for just 36 days. For most of the time, Labour’s top rate was 40p. Not 45p. Not 50p. 40p - 5p less than now.

And under the previous government a cleaner paid a higher rate of tax on their wages than a hedgefund manager selling their shares - a gross unfairness that we have fixed.

The sudden, synthetic fury we’re seeing from the Labour party is nothing more than an attempt to distract people from the most important change coming into effect: the tax cut for ordinary working people delivered by the Liberal Democrats. That policy was on the front page of our manifesto, it’s been my priority from the moment we entered the Coalition, and now millions of people will feel the benefits.

In every single year of this Parliament the rich will pay a greater share of our nation's tax revenues than in any one year of the last government. The IFS have confirmed that, as a result of our changes, the wealthiest 10% of people are making the greatest contribution.

So I will take no lectures from the Labour party on tax – the Liberal Democrats are making the tax system fair.

I would be a prime minister who woke up every single morning thinking how do we help the many in this country, not just a few at the top. Nobody believes that of David Cameron. And nobody can believe that when, this month of all months, when so many people are facing such difficult times, he's cutting taxes for millionaires. So that is the choice. It is a choice between a One Nation Labour party which will stand up for the many, or a Conservative-led government standing up the few.

And here's a quote from Ed Miliband about the plan. He is stressing that Labour is responding to a request from local communities.

People like Vince Maples, the Labour group leader in Medway, have been calling on the government to give councils new powers to permit people to shape their own high streets. We must give councils that power.

New powers so that local people can decide, through their councils, what shops can and can’t open up. This will be different in local areas, local solutions to local problems. But it means that when they want, the people in our towns and cities can say: ‘No. Enough is enough.’

David Cameron’s government used to say it would give people that kind of chance. But it hasn’t delivered. In fact, it is moving in the opposite direction. Not standing up to the powerful interests. So it is up to us to give local people a proper chance to protect the places that they love. To turn their high streets around.

Here's an extract from the Labour briefing note explaining how this will work.

Currently local authorities and communities feel increasingly powerless to shape their town centres or do anything to halt the tide of pay day loan firms which alter the character of a high street and can put off people visiting or investing, and damages other businesses already there.

For instance, if a high street bank closes down, communities are powerless to stop a payday loan moving in because these are classed as the same kind of business. Labour’s would create an additional umbrella class which allows local councils to decide if they want to place some premises in a separate planning category. This would allow local authorities to refuse planning permission on the grounds that for example opening a pay loan shop would constitute a change of use. It would also councils to control the spread of other types of outlet where there is local concern such as around the proliferation of betting shops.

The other day a woman came up to me, as I waited religiously for green, and gave me a clear insight into why Labour doesn’t deserve to win the next election — and why, indeed, it almost certainly won’t.

She was called Katie and she was a recruitment consultant for a group of swish restaurants. In other words, she was on the lookout for people to be chefs, waiters, sommeliers, hat-check people: that kind of thing ...

Then a thought occurred. “Er, tell me,” I said, “what proportion of the people you employ are, you know, from London? I mean, how many of them are, ahem, British?”

Katie looked embarrassed. She knew exactly what I was driving at.

“To be honest, about 10 per cent,” she said. “But why?” I asked. “Why is it that these jobs are not being done by London kids? What can I do about it?” The restaurant recruitment consultant looked thoughtful. “It’s the schools, I think,” she said. “They teach the kids that they can earn all this money but they don’t explain that they will have to work hard. The people I recruit — they have a different work ethic.”

Now we all know that what Katie is saying is true, and we all know that it isn’t enough to blame the immigrants. For starters, we can’t kick people out when they are legally entitled to be here under EU rules. Second, and much more important, it is economically illiterate to blame Eastern Europeans for getting up early and working hard and being polite and helpful and therefore enabling the London catering trade to flourish.

‘Seventy per cent of people on [DLA] have lifetime awards which means no-one sees you ever again. It doesn’t matter if you get better or your condition worsens - it’s quite ridiculous,’ Mr Duncan Smith said.

‘There are websites dedicated to telling you how to avoid the pitfalls of making a claim for DLA. We have seen a bit of a rise in the run-up to PIP - in some parts of the North West a doubling in claims. And you know why? They know PIP has a health check. They want to get in early, get ahead of it.

Professionals including doctors, lecturers and journalists are being put on “zero hours” contracts – where they can get no hours and no pay – which were once the preserve of unskilled workers.

The total number of employees on zero hours contracts rose 25 per cent over the course of 2012 and more than 150 per cent since the autumn of 2005, according to the British Labour Force survey, as employers embrace the ultimate flexible contract.

Originally, the contracts were used in retail and hospitality to cope with peaks and troughs in demand but now other sectors with busy and quiet periods are using them to supplement their core staff and save money.

Britain will become a safe haven for foreign criminals if the Government withdraws from European measures to fight cross-border crime, chief constables have warned.

The Home Secretary is risking public safety and severely hindering the UK’s ability to deal with overseas criminals if the planned opt-out from EU intelligence-sharing goes ahead, they said.

One police chief warned that Theresa May was dismissing a range of initiatives as “EU meddling” without properly considering their value in the fight against crime in this country.

“There is a tendency at the Home Office to announce first and think second,” a senior officer said ...

The Association of Chief Police Officers warned in written evidence to a House of Lords committee: “There is a real risk that opting out of the European Arrest Warrant and relying on less effective extradition arrangements could have the effect of turning the UK into a safe haven for Europe’s criminals.”

According to remarks released in advance, Nick Clegg is going to use his speech at the launch of the Lib Dem local election campaign to accuse Labour and the Tory councils of wasting money.

Next month, in wards across the country, people will be confronted with the same choice.

Despite all their stated differences, a vote for Labour or the Tories will be a vote for the same thing.

Their record in local government shows that, even when millions of families are feeling the pinch, they’ll both squander taxpayers’ money on waste, inefficiency and their own vanity projects.

A vote for the Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, is a vote for a party which – wherever we’re in power – does it’s best to spread the burden of austerity fairly, investing in jobs and help for hard-pressed families.

But I see that on Twitter Paul Scully, the Conservative candidate for Sutton and Cheam, has accused the Lib Dem-run Sutton council of being just as bad.

Esther McVey, the minister for disabled people, was on the Today programme talking about the change. She said the government was not cutting the amount of money being spent on this benefit, but it was trying to curb the rate at which disability spending rises.

We will be spending more in 2015-16 than we are spending now, and it will remain at £13bn every year. So what the difference is, and what the reduction is in, is actually the growth of the number of people getting the benefit which had gone up 35% in the last ten years. It started off with 1.1m people on benefi. There is now 3.3 people on the benefit ... The figures we have by 2018, 1 in 17 public on the benefit, so it was about stopping this growth that has gone up, but it was about spending the £13bn every year on those people that need it the most.

11am: Clegg launches the Lib Dem local election campaign at the Eden Project in Cornwall. As my colleague Nicholas Watt reports, he will quash the idea that he is working towards building a new alliance with Ed Miliband when he launches a strong attack on Labour for “selective amnesia” over its time in office. But, as the BBC reports, he will also have a go at the Tories too, accusing them of wasting taxpayers’ money in local government.

As usual, I’ll also be covering all the breaking political news as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I’ll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and another in the afternoon.